From a Franciscan in Rome:
In my free time, I lend a hand doing translation work for "Totus Tuus," the monthly magazine publish by the Office of the Postulation of the Cause for the Beatification and Canonization of the Servant of God John Paul II, which looks to follow John Paul II’s cause by interviewing those who had contact with him during his life, writing about the important themes of his magisterium (as well as highlighting the continuity with Benedict XVI’s magisterium), bringing to light the personal life of John Paul II through some of his poems and a short biographical segment, and sharing the testimonies and prayer intentions from all over the world. It is published in Italian, English, French, Spanish, Portugese, and Polish with plans to eventually have Russian and Chinese editions as well.
The reason I tell you this is because the magazine and the work of the Office of the Postulation is dependent upon donations, particular the subscriptions to the magazine from Europe, Canada, and the US, which subsides subscriptions from under-developed countries so that the magazine and the message of John Paul II can reach as many people as possible. I don’t think that "Totus Tuus" is very well known in the United States (not many of these Italian ecclesial magazines are), and the last time I checked the number of English subscriptions throughout the world was less than 300.
So, I was wondering if you would be willing to mention the magazine on your blog to let people know that it exists and how one can subscribe.
The subscription is for a year (10 issues) and the cost is $25. To suscribe and pay by credit card one can visit the web site of the Cause for Beatification and Canonization of John Paul II here. "VicariatusUrbis.org" is the site for Roman Vicarite.
Also, part of what I do for the magazine is go over the translations for the English edition, and the English edition is in need of native English speakers (preferably who live here in Rome and who have a good knowledge of church terminology) who can translate from Italian (usually only a 2 paged double spaced article or less a month for each person). So, I was wondering if you won’t mind mentioning that translators are needed and listing me as a contact for further information.
The contact is chrisgaffrey -at – yahoo.com – that would be Br. Chris Gaffrey, OFM, who adds:
I just heard from the Office of the Postulation today that the number of requests from the US for the holy cards of John Paul II with the "relic" has increased dramatically. They received 250 requests today alone.
By the way, the Postulator has been carefully wording his replies to people’s requests because the pieces of JPII’s clothes are not quite the same as relics, as he has not been beatified. They want to avoid the use of the word "relic" because one can not use the "ex indumentis" for public devotion like the relics of saints and blesseds, but rather only for private devotion.
Important Update:
PLEASE…if you send a request for a "relic," do find a way to send a donation to cover postage. Obviously you can’t do that via email, but you could follow up an email with a snailmail donation. Any currency would be fine, I’m sure. They can deal with it. They received 600 requests yesterday, and sending all of those out isn’t free…
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